Video Conference Interviews

Introduction#

Now that you’ve mastered how to act in an in-person interview, it’s time to forget everything and learn how to act in a video conference interview. Well, no, not everything, not even close; but you do need to commit a few more things to memory before embarking on one of these interviews.

The most important thing to remember in such an interview is that you need to be visible and audible – the interviewer needs to leave the video conference with a strong impression of what you look like and sound like in real life. You DO NOT want to be known as the washed-out person with a crackly voice. In this course, you will have opportunities to practice on video. While reviewing your responses, view at least once with the sound off to assess your body language. The six guidelines below will be helpful when embarking on a video conference interview.

Camera angle#

Be wary of an unflattering camera angle. Unlike person-to-person interviews, your camera may not show you as you really are. Before getting on a call, check how your camera is looking at you. One of the easiest ways to do this is to pull up the video-calling app (most have picture previews) and adjust the camera pre-interview.

While adjusting, be wary of camera angles that are so low that they give the interviewer a look into your nose ​or camera angles that are so high that the interviewer is looking down on you. The correct placement for a camera should be right at eye level; however, you must remember to look directly at the camera. If you are looking at the computer screen, it will appear as if you are looking down, which is not a good look.

Pro Tip: Grab some big books and rest your laptop on them in front of you. This will bring the camera to eye-level.

Lighting#

Make sure you’re visible. As anyone who has tried to take a selfie knows, getting lighting right can be tricky.

The biggest problem most people have with lighting in video conferences is the “too much light in the background” issue. Too much light can make someone look washed out and hard to look at. To fix this problem, try reducing the amount of light behind you; if that makes things too dark, find a lamp with an adjustable neck that you can place nearby to cast light on your face. If this light is too bright, adjust it.

Clean background#

Clean your area. One of the biggest differences between an in-person interview and a video conference interview is that you control your surroundings. For the most part, this is a positive but, depending on the background you choose, it can also be a negative.

To avoid any awkward moments, make sure that your background is clean. The easiest way to make sure an interviewer will not be greeted with any surprises is to find a solid-colored​ wall to sit in front of; nothing ruins an otherwise good interview like your half-naked roommate sitting in the living room behind you. Do what you can to minimize anything distracting that might occur in the view.

Try it yourself!#

Take a look at the pictures and mimic them in your own video below. You have up to 2 minutes to record. Once you finish recording, analyze your videos with this rubric.

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In the next lesson, we’ll look at some more video conference techniques.